What a strange comparison, the reader may think. How can a
race be compared with a nation?

It is a permissible comparison. The Negroes were the last to be freed
from slavery, and they still bear, more than anyone else, the cruel marks
of slavery—even in advanced countries—for capitalism has no “room”
for other than legal emancipation, and even the latter it curtails in every
possible way.

With regard to the Russians, history has it that they were “almost”
freed from serf bondage in 1861. It was about the same time,
following the civil war against the American slaveowners, that North
America’s Negroes were freed from slavery,

The emancipation of the American slaves took place in a less
“reformative” manner than that of the Russian slaves.

That is why today, half a century later, the Russians still
show many more traces of slavery than the Negroes. Indeed, it
would be more accurate to speak of institutions and not merely of
traces. But in this short article we shall limit ourselves to a little
illustration of what we have said, namely, the question of literacy. It is
known that illiteracy is one of the marks of slavery. In a country
oppressed by pashas, Purishkeviches and their like, the majority of the
population cannot be literate.

In Russia there are 73 per cent of illiterates, exclusive of
children under nine years of age.

Among the U.S. Negroes, there were (in 1900) 44.5 per cent of
illiterates.

Such a scandalously high percentage of illiterates is a disgrace to a
civilised, advanced country like the North
American Republic. Furthermore, everyone knows that the position of the
Negroes in America in general is one unworthy of a civilised
country—capitalism cannot give either complete
emancipation or even complete equality.

It is instructive that among the whites in America the proportion of
illiterates is not more than 6 per cent. But if we divide America into what
were formerly slave-holding areas (an American “Russia”) and
non-slave-holding areas (an American non-Russia), we shall find 11–12
per cent of illiterates among the whites in the former and 4–6
per cent in the latter areas!

The proportion of illiterates among the whites is twice as
high in the former slave-holding areas. It is not only the Negroes
that show traces of slavery!